


Dwellings of a Past

by TornTwilight



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Demigod Dreams (Percy Jackson), Period-Typical Racism, Racism, Short One Shot, bad times™, get that nasty stuff out of here, hinted hazel/sammy, kinda short, no romantic frazel, platonic frazel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:21:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26254813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TornTwilight/pseuds/TornTwilight
Summary: During some downtime on the Argo II, Hazel has a bad dream of the past.
Relationships: Hazel Levesque & Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque & Sammy Valdez, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11
Collections: why im sleep deprived 💖✨





	Dwellings of a Past

Deep in her sleep, Hazel had a dream of a past memory.  
  
  
 _Hazel was heading towards her school, affectionately named St. Agnes Academy for Colored Children and Indians. She walked down the sidewalk, Sammy by her side. Her school bag swayed by her side. “Hey, did you see that new radio show? War of the Worlds? It’s pretty swell. I cracked up listening to it, but my parents busted my chops for being too loud!” Hazel hadn’t actually seen the radio show he was talking about but it was nice to see Sammy so excited over something.  
  
“I didn’t. What was it about?” was said with a smile.   
  
__Their quiet conversation was interrupted by a loud yell coming from ahead. “Hey, look at them! It’s the two losers! Go back where you came from!” A laugh erupted.  
  
The two turned to see where the yell came from. It was John Jones, a well-known bully at the whites-only school nearby. It wasn’t the two’s first encounter with him. He would often go out of his way to find Hazel during the morning walk, yelling slurs and insulting her while his idiotic cronies laughed along.  
  
Sammy stepped in front of Hazel in a protective sense. He was always doing that, like it was his job. It was stupid, but Hazel loved him for it. “We were born and raised here, fat-head!”   
  
“No need to snap your cap, dopey. Just learn your place and we ain’t gotta bother you no more.” John said. He said it with a tone of disgust; like it was Sammy’s and Hazel’s fault they were the way they were. “Hey, you! Grab their bags!” One of his so-called followers stepped out of the group and headed over to them.  
  
Hazel yelped. Sammy tried to step in, but it was too late. The follower grabbed Hazel’s bag and began dumping it out on the floor. The rest of John’s followers followed suit with Sammy’s bag. They sat there and watched as all of their schoolwork was destroyed. Sammy yelled at them, “No! Hey, that’s our stuff! Go away, you crumbs!” But all Hazel could do was sit there and stare in horror.  
The group turned on them. Out of the crowd, someone yelled. “Get them!”   
  
Sammy grabbed Hazel’s hand and ran as fast as they could. They were chased for what felt like hours. Sammy searched for a place to hide and spotted a dark alleyway. There might be someone already in there, but it was better than getting beaten up by the bullies. While the bullies were distracted, Sammy turned and pulled Hazel into an alleyway and hid behind a dumpster.  
  
They breathed heavily and tried to catch their breath. They waited for one of the followers to find them, as they usually did. This time, however, nothing happened. They waited an extra few minutes just to make sure.  
  
“Oh no! Sammy! All our schoolwork is gone! Mrs. Smith will have our heads!” Hazel had worked on it for hours. It was nearly impossible with the letters seemingly moving on the page and having the urge to jump up and do something else. Now, all those hours of hard work were gone.  
  
Sammy groaned. “I know... Mrs. Smith can really be the dumps. Sometimes, I think she’s in cahoots with the bullies.” He sighed. “I’ll take the blame.”  
  
“You can’t do that!” Hazel cried out. “You know the punishment for missing work! She’ll hit you 50 times with the ruler, and 50 more times for covering for me!”  
  
He smiled. “It’ll be worth it, if you won’t get hurt.”  
  
Hazel blushed and smiled back. Despite knowing what was ahead for them, for a second, Hazel felt happy.  
  
Suddenly, it was over. _

__  
  
__Hazel woke up with a gasp. Her chest went up and down as she breathed heavily and tried her best to recover. She struggled to remember where she was. It was **2013** , not **1940**. She was on the Argo II. It was fine. She was safe. No one was going to yell at her. She was safe. She was alone. All of those bullies were… dead. So was Sammy.  
  
It was startling to realize. No matter how long she had been in the 2010s, it was hard to realize she wasn’t back there. It was a whole new century. There were mobile phones and everyone could afford a TV now. People weren’t as racist now (at least openly,) schools were desegregated, there weren’t black and white neighborhoods. Things were different. So, so different.  
  
Sometimes, she wished Nico hadn’t brought her back at all. Hazel missed her mom. The Fields of Asphodel were a boring and uninteresting place, but her mom was there. Hazel had spent so much time there, and even if it was hard to think about, she sometimes missed it. It was certainly much less complicated than the mess she was in now.  
  
They all had to defeat Gaea, the literal mother of the gods, mostly by themselves all in less than 6 months. Hazel was only 14, she couldn’t do this! At first, she had a crew of 7 other people to back her up. But now...there were only a few of them left. Leo was missing and Percy and Annabeth were stuck in Tartarus. She could only imagine what they were going through. Oh, poor Nico. He had gone through that alone. She couldn’t even help Nico. He slowly became more subdued, more quiet around other people. Hazel couldn’t even save him when he was stuck in a jar! He had to go through all of that and fight just to bring her back. Why was she being treated like she was important? All she could do was curse people with her stupid “precious” gems. Hazel felt so powerless.  
  
A knock sounded at her door, distracting her for a moment. “It’s Frank. Uhm, may I come in? It’s, uh, it’s alright if it’s a no! I know it’s late.” came from the other side.  
  
Hazel blushed and quickly made herself presentable. She turned to a mirror located near her bed to see what she needed to do. Wiping off her tear tracks with a moist towelette, adjusting her shirt and pants, and fixing her hair to the point where she at least deemed it respectable. Her eyes were puffy and red but it wasn’t like she could do much besides hope Frank didn’t notice it. Hazel knew it wasn’t a good chance of that happening, but maybe he would ignore it.“You may come in!”  
  
Frank tiptoed into her room. “I, uh, heard you crying from the other room. You wanna talk about it?” Hazel blushed and nodded a no.  
  
“I’m sorry to be such a disturbance at a late hour.” she replied quietly.  
  
“No, no! It’s fine, I just wanted to make sure you were alright.” Frank saw her sorrowful eyes and instantly softened. “Can I hug you?”

Hazel nodded and burst into tears again. "Oh, I’m making such a fool of myself! I'm sorry you had to come all the way out here just to deal with me." Frank patted her head and soothed her to the best of his ability.

"It's completely fine. I did it out of my own free will. I'm always gonna be here for you. Got it?" A tiny nod came from Hazel. "Good."  
  
They stayed like that for a few hours. Frank hugging her and Hazel sobbing into his shoulder.

Eventually, Hazel fell asleep and Frank tucked her and smiled at her softly. “Good night.” He whispered and slowly closed the door, going to his own room to rest.


End file.
